News / Events

On 11 May 2021, the Australian Government delivered the 2021-22 Budget and announced it is investing an additional $36.7 million in PBCs over the next four years.

This increase recognises the need to further strengthen PBCs to improve their capacity and enable them to realise the benefits of native title for native title holders. The additional support includes:

• $7.1 million to implement the recent legislative reforms in the Native Title Legislation Amendment Act 2021 and related regulations which affect PBCs.
• $21 million for the PBC Capacity Building measure to expand the program to meet increased and expected demand.
• $8.6 million to expand PBC Basic Support funding, with the aim of funding up to 75 per cent of all PBCs by 2025-26.

For the Kaurareg people of the Torres Strait this isn't just a hillside. It's sacred ground.

The site is central to the creation story of Muralug (also known as Prince of Wales Island).

In its red soil they see the spilled blood of the warrior-giant Waubin.

His body and the bodies of his wives are represented in rocks that can be seen off another island when the tide is low.

His saw shark sword is their totem.

The mining giant Rio Tinto has surprised observers with its latest attempt to demonstrate accountability over its catastrophic blasting of the 46,000 year old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara last year, with the announcement its chairman and a director are standing down.

Fortescue Metals Group has been forced to apologise to an important traditional owner group in Australia’s iron ore heartland after breaking a government-imposed condition which required the company to wait for indigenous elders to be present when a culturally significant site was developed.

A Victorian Aboriginal corporation is fighting to salvage its $34 million settlement with the government, after the Federal Court found significant legal errors occurred during the registration of the land deal which underpins it.

Australia’s laws and policies prevent First Nations from fully participating in, and benefiting from, decisions about water. In fact, Indigenous peoples hold less than 1% of Australia’s water rights.

Lake Victoria, in far-west New South Wales, is an important Murray-Darling Basin water storage operated by South Australia to manage its downstream needs and to maintain its security of supply.

To Mrs Lawson, an 84-year-old Paakantyi Maraura elder, it is where dozens of generations of her ancestors are buried.